Exiles in Their Own Land: Japanese Protestant Mission History and Theory in Conversation with Practical Theology
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1 YALE DIVINITY SCHOOL LIBRARY Occasional Publication No. 25 Exiles in their Own Land: Japanese Protestant Mission History and Theory in Conversation with Practical Theology by Thomas John Hastings NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT March, 2018 2 The Occasional Publications of the Yale Divinity School Library are sponsored by The George Edward and Olivia Hotchkiss Day Associates. This Day Associates Lecture was delivered by Thomas John Hastings on June 30, 2017, during the annual meeting of the Yale-Edinburgh Group on the History of the Missionary Movement and World Christianity. The theme of the 2017 meeting was “Migration, Exile, and Pilgrimage in the History of Missions and World Christianity.” Thomas John Hastings is Executive Director of the Overseas Ministries Study Center in New Haven, Connecticut. Dr. Hastings is also Editor of the International Bulletin of Mission Research. He has published two books Seeing All Things Whole: The Scientific Mysticism and Art of Kagawa Toyohiko, 1888-1960 (Wipf & Stock, Pickwick, 2015) and Practical Theology and the One Body of Christ: Toward a Missional-Ecumenical Model (Eerdmans, 2007), as well as numerous book chapters, journal articles, and translations in both English and Japanese. 3 SLIDE 1 Introduction: In 1988, Carol and I were appointed as a PC (USA) Mission Co-workers in Kanazawa, Japan. I was Lecturer at Hokuriku Gakuin University, a Kindergarten-college “mission school” founded by an American Presbyterian named Mary Hesser in 1885 as Kanazawa’s first educational institution for girls and young women. Kanazawa is located on the Japan Sea where the Jodo-Shinshu sect of Buddhism is the dominant religious affiliation of most families. During my official interview, Rev. Osumi Keizo, a veteran pastor who had served more than 40 years in Kanazawa, offered me some sage advice. Looking me in the eye, he said with a smile, “Hastings-kun, welcome to Rome in A.D. 130.” While I never forgot his words, it took many years to grasp their depth of meaning. I hope the following brief historical introduction will give those of you who are not so familiar with Japanese Christianity a better sense of the meaning of Rev. Osumi’s cryptic words. SLIDE 2 As Martin Scorsese’s recent interpretation of Endo Shusaku’s 1966 novel Silence attests, Japan’s first encounter with Roman Catholic Christianity from 1549–1639 came to a sudden halt when the Tokugawa shogunate expelled the foreign missionaries and outlawed Christianity, instituting a systematic persecution of converts and issuing a series of national seclusion (sakoku) edicts. During the so-called “Christian Century,” the number of Japanese converts is thought to have reached as many as 400,000, and estimates of martyrs vary greatly from a few hundred to several thousand. While some “hidden Christians” (Kakure Kirishitan) tried to keep faith in secrecy, Japanese rulers effectively stamped out the Christian movement, and with it, the threat of Western political domination they rightly feared would accompany it.1 1 As they had witnessed, for example, in the nearby Philippine Islands. 4 SLIDE 3 Japan's second ambiguous encounter with Christianity occurred after 1853 and 1854, when the U.S. Navy’s “Black Ships” delivered presidential ultimatums to Japan’s rulers to open their ports for foreign trade. Soon Catholic and Protestant missionaries began arriving in the late 1850's, and Russsian Orthodox came in 1861. Many “hidden Christians” resurfaced in Nagasaki, but sporadic persecutions continued until 1873 when the new Meiji government lifted the ban under foreign pressure. SLIDE 4 Protestant missionaries engaged in Bible translation, medical work, evangelism, and education. Coming from elite samurai (warrior) families who had been stripped of their income and privilege, the youthful first generation Japanese Protestants felt that the old traditions of Japan were impotent for responding to the new demands of the modern world. Hence, the “civilizing” Gospel proclaimed by the mostly American missionaries, seemed to offer the best hope for the future progress and success of their beloved homeland. Looking back on his initial motivations for baptism, one first-generation Protestant leader confessed, I was a thorough-going nationalist and did not become a Christian because of any deep conviction. I had not yet had even the slightest taste of spiritual Christianity. It was simply because Christianity was the religion of civilized nations, making Shinto and Buddhism useless. I was only convinced in my heart that without Christianity Japan could never become civilized like the Western countries.2 These young converts also perceived a happy affinity between the samurai spirit (Bushido) and the Puritan spirit of the missionaries. 3 SLIDE 5 The Meiji government rushed to promote Western technology and capitalism, and cultivate a strong nationalist sentiment. In 1889, a Constitution was promulgated, 2 Tamura Naomi, Fifty Years of Faith [in Japanese] (Tokyo: Keiseisha, 1924), pp. 24–25. 3 Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox missionaries also attracted former samurai and other ambitious youth. Unlike the Protestant converts who were drawn to Bible study and ethics, Catholic and Orthodox converts were attracted by spiritual practices and obedience to church teaching. 5 followed in 1890 by the Imperial Rescript on Education. The 1890’s witnessed a nationalistic backlash to Christianity as a foreign faith, and Japanese converts were hard- pressed to offer a contextual apologia for the faith. Tensions surrounding issues such as denominationalism, modern science, and the "new theology" grew between Japanese church leaders and missionaries. Public opinion turned against Christianity with some intellectuals proclaiming Christianity incompatible with Japan's emperor-centered piety. The "mission schools" were hit hard by the government's 1899 ban on religious instruction and observance in all public and private schools, yet they managed to survive. SLIDE 6 In the early 1900's, under the influence of modern psychology, Christian socialism, and liberal theology, churches sponsored the work of Sunday schools, hospitals, orphanages, and leprosaria. The 8th World’s Sunday School Convention was held in Tokyo in 1920! Some Christian innovators advocated for the rights of children, women, industrial laborers, and farmers. 4 For mainline Protestant theology, the shift to a strong and enduring interest in dialectical theology, and especially in Karl Barth, began in the late 1920’s and early 1930’s. SLIDE 7 The Christian cause met its next major test in the 1930's and 40's when the government mandated participation in the Shinto "Rite of Imperial Subjects" (kokumin girei), both in Japan and the countries of its expanding empire. The government tightened its grip on religious groups with the 1939 passage of the Religious Organization Law, and in 1941, all Protestant denominations were placed within the United Church of Christ in Japan (Kyodan). While some Holiness Church pastors were imprisoned for their views on the Second Coming, most churches cooperated with the government during the war. SLIDE 8 4 Japan's Orthodox church fell on hard times in the wake of the Russian revolution of 1917. 6 While most Baptists, Episcopalians, Lutherans, and other groups left the Kyodan immediately following Japan's defeat in WW II, the largest prewar denominations (Presbyterian, Reformed, Congregationalist, and Methodist) opted to remain together in what continues to be Japan's largest Protestant group. There was a brief upswing in the number of conversions during the U.S. Occupation (1945-1952), and enrollment in the former "mission schools" (now called "Christian schools") increased dramatically. Over 80 new evangelical mission groups and Catholic orders arrived after WWII. The 1967 Confession of War Responsibility and student unrest of the late 1960's and early 1970's created a deep and still unhealed division within the Kyodan. With the dramatic decrease in the number of mainline Protestant missionaries and disappearing financial support, in 2005, JNAC (Japan-North American Commission on Cooperative Mission), the body representing the North American mainline denominations, closed its Tokyo offices, effectively severing official ties with the Kyodan. SLIDE 9 Of the 2.6 million Christians in Japan today, roughly 1.1 million are Independent, 600,000 are Protestant, 533,000 are Catholic, and 31,000 are Orthodox. 5 The Independent category includes Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. In spite of its status as a predominantly urban and middle-class minority faith, Christianity's influence on ethical and social issues has not been insignificant. SLIDE 10 Continuities and Discontinuities in Mission Theory and Practice As the curtain was closing on the first generation of Protestant missionary work in Japan,6 about 400 missionaries, representing forty-two denominations and church-related groups such as the YMCA, gathered in Tokyo in October, 1900 for the General Conference of Protestant Missionaries. The massive 1048-page record of the meeting assesses the 5 Todd M. Johnson & Gina A. Zurlo, General Editors, World Christian Encyclopedia, 2015. 6 The first Protestant missionaries arrived in Japan in 1859, and the first-generation Japanese converts refers to those born in the 1850’s and 1860’s. 7 progress and future outlook of activities in evangelism, education, literature, and social movements. If these activities were pictured as concentric circles, there was a clear consensus among the missionaries that evangelism